Mass Effect: Andromeda

Mass Effect 4 is an upcoming installment in BioWare's Mass Effect RPG action series. Little is yet known about the game, but it will not feature the series' previous protagonist, Commander Shepard. There will be new enemies and possibly new races in the game.

FEATURES

A New Story Begins |New installment in Mass Effect series will feature a new protagonist and story.

New Faces |New enemies, including possible new races, are likely to be featured.

Today is N7 Day, the annual celebration of the Mass Effect series. In honor of the 10th anniversary, BioWare has released a moving tribute to the game with interviews with key members of the development team and more. It's an emotional roller coaster, however, given the fact that the series is on an indefinite hiatus after a less-than-stellar reception of Mass Effect: Andromeda.

The next Mass Effect: Andromeda tie-in novel won't arrive until a year after the game's release and subsequent "placing on ice". The book is called "Annihilation" and deals with the events on the Quarian ark, one of four that left the Milky Way heading for a new life in the Andromeda galaxy. However, as we know from the game, the Quarian ark (also carrying Hanar, Drell, Elcor and Batarian pioneers) never makes it the rendezvous.

In a new interview at Waypoint (via Eurogamer), former BioWare developer Manveer Heir spills the beans on EA's direction with regard to triple A single-player games. "[T]he linear single-player triple-A game at EA is dead for the time being" according to Heir and the main culprit for that is the microtransaction system. In fact, Heir said that it was not uncommon to see players spend $15,000 on Mass Effect multiplayer packs that could yield gear and other in-game items.

The BioWare blog has been updated with a brief, but heartbreaking, note to let fans of Mass Effect: Andromeda know that there "are no planned future patches for singl-player or in-game story content". Development will continue on multiplayer missions and in "upcoming comics and novels" that will include the story what happened to the Quarian ark.

Now former Mass Effect Andromeda Lead Designer Ian Frazier has announced via Twitter that he is now working on an unannounced project at EA Motive. You may recall that EA announced the merger of BioWare Montreal, the studio that developed MEA, with EA Motive. With Frazier's announcement that he is "now on an unannounced project", it becomes even less likely that any DLC for Mass Effect: Andromeda will be released. The most recent patch, for example, was multiplayer-specific only.